What unit you DONT use

[Kalach]

I was really disappointed to find paratrooper armies don't seem able to paradrop
But marien armies can still do amphibious assaults.
I still extensively use paras, mariens, and Inf though.

 

[gunkulator]

I build catapults but rarely use them. I wait for knights and them upgrade cats to trebs.

Never built:
Chariots
Longbows (my stacked trebs have better def bombard)
Guerillas
Heliocopters
Paratroopers
Stealth Fighters

As to Frigates: I build them to explore and to protect Galleons. The age of sail was significantly increased in C3C since _nobody_ bothers with ironclads now. If you go the lower tech tree route to get TOE and Hoover, you have to wait a long long time before combustion and destroyers.

 

[Ovulator]

I have never built:

I have never used:

trebuchet
flak
sam
fighter
jet fighter
modern armor
cannon
radar artilery
carrier

 

[LLXerxes]

have you ever played a game into the modern age because not using modern armour is just crazy...
Plus not using marines is crazy

 

[Breunor]

I know I've built all of the medieval units. A trebuchet, Pikeman, longbow or Medieval infantry army can be really strong. Its slow, and uses up more maintenance than a knight army, but it gives more power per shields used and gives units more appropriate for garrison duty after conquest.

I do find Medieval infantry is better than longbows generally; they are both 40 shields, and the MIE has one more defense and the same attack and speed. But, as was pointed out above, the lonbows have a defensivve bombardment, so a few in a stack make sense.

Also, I don't always get strategic resources. If you have slatpeter and no iron, you can do a lot of damage with longbows, trebuchets, and muskets.

Unfortunately, they can stand up to knights. Cavalry, well, that's a problem.

Breunor

 

[viper275]

Guerillas
Chariots
Helicopters

That's about it.

 

[GloomDrifter]

Ironclads: One reason would probably be that I almost always play on a pangaea map. I find ironclads useless. I don't need to explore water on pangaea, and I could always use wooden ships to explore if I really needed to. Besides, destroyers/battleships aren't too far away and they're FAR superior to ironclads. Plus, since ironclads are an optional tech in C3C, it'd be a waste of precious research. By the time you automatically get them, you should have destroyers/battleships.

Horsemen: Horsemen are meant for offense, and swordsmen have them beat by a full attack point. Sure, swordsmen don't have the double movement range, but in the ancient ages, I'd wage war on a close neighbor rather than someone across the map. Besides, I do most of my conquering when I've switched to Monarchy, and by that time knights aren't that far away. By the time I really mobilize for war, I will have found and secured a source of iron.

Longbowmen: Alright, usually, I would use knights over both Medieval infantry and Longbowmen, but if there were no horses, I would go for MDIs. The two defense can be useful if you don't want to bring along pikemen when conquering cities, and the bombardment is only useful if you have a large number of longbows. Too large to be worth it.

Chariots: A warrior on wheels. I'd rather use swordsmen/spearmen for offense and defense respectively.

Stealth Fighter: The abillity to be virtually invisible is negated by it's low bombardment value. Besides, I tend to use air units to attack stacks of units rather than cities, and stacks rarely have flaks. I use RAs for city bombardment, or whatever the current artillery is.

Cruise Missile: The fact that it's one-time only just doesn't appeal to me. Even with high bombardment value, low cost, and ability to kill on bombardment. I'd rather bring along artillery/RA as they're reusable.

Marines: Tanks are better. What else can I say? I don't care much for being able to attack from a carrier. I'd rather unload some tanks/infantry near a city and attack the next turn. Being able to pull off amphibious attack doesn't add any element of surprise or anything. Your enemies will notice your transports in their territory, so I'd rather unload tanks.

Flak: Enemies rarely use air units anyway.

Paratrooper: Like amphibious attack. A pretty useless ability. Rarely does the enemy make a wall of troops that you can't pass through, and if they did, they'd have to spread their troops out pretty thinly, making the wall easy to breach.

I'll add more if I feel like it.

 

[redhulkz]

AI build hundreds of TOW

 

[Kalach]

have you ever played a game into the modern age because not using modern armour is just crazy...
Plus not using marines is crazy

In my last game I used only the infantry class units (Inf, Marines, Paratroops)
and won
I almost never use armour, unless the enemy has lots of MA & MechInf, there's something impersonal about killing things from inside a garbage can on wheels

If the enemy does have heaps of MA + Mech, I'd still rather just help my troops with arty and air-support.
It does seem almost needed to defent with mech though.

 

[Grohan]

I never use regular chariots because you usually get HBR soon after you've discovered wheel.

I haven't ever build these units because they come too late:
Stealth planes
Radar arty
AEGIS cruiser

 

[citizen001]

I never ever use Settlers......
just joking

i can't see myself using:
-helicopters
-ironclads
-cruise missiles
-tactical nukes

 

[Dreadnought]

Are you crazy? Knights are one of the best mideval age units! Who cares about cost! They are effective as heck!

I find MDI are just as good as knights (pikemen with them) and I don't need to research them. Uh oh! What if I don't have horses! go to 'crappy' MDI???

Ironclads are good for exploring, and if the AI is tied with you (tech wise) they are like the only thin you have...

By now most of the map is explored (if not I just trade WMs) and while the AI is researching Ironclads im going to tech with Theory of Evolution so I can get even closer to destroyers

What if no rubber? Besides, what if AI is tech strong? You would still use crappy musketmen(if you have saltpeter)or pikeman(if ya got iron) against cavalry and MDI?

I would trade with the AI for Nationalism and instead if im at war keep to the offensive (most of the time i'll have rubber anyway, if i don't, ill just conquer a weak opponent who does )

What if no Iron? You resort to crappy archers? Besides, the retreat/extra movement is great!

Yes, Id use 'crappy' archers that have just a (OMG! ) -1 movement than the horsemen and conquer the iron I need. I know, I know...horsemen can retreat, but by the time I get them back to a base to heal, I would have conquered the iron i needed and would be mass producing swordsmen.

There you have it!

 

[Roi du Culture]

i too have never used longbowmen. I have been graced with iron every game so far.

 

[magritte]

Chariots, paratrooper, marine, helicopters, nukes, artillery units, ironclads, submarines
I never build guerrillas or TOW infantry, but I usually have some due to upgrading.

My oddest quirk is that I sometimes miss riflemen entirely by getting replaceable parts before I get nationalism.

 

[~Corsair#01~]

I generally don't use artillery- I've never understood how anyone could use them in the first place without cutting the speed of an offensive in half- unless you're using 1 movement troops in the attack, which I never do unless I'm in wars in the Ancient Age, or early Medieval Age, where there are no half decent cavalry units.
I tried using artillery a bit in vanilla civ, but it usually just resulted in me destroying all city improvements and not really damaging the troops inside.

 

[toh6wy]

I hardly ever build helicopters or paratroopers, and I don't think I've ever actually used one in a war. I also hardly ever build stealth fighters (what can they do that stealth bombers can't do as well or better? - besides being cheaper) - or fighters in general for that matter. I generally end up ahead of most of my opponents by quite a few techs by the time I get Flight, and so I don't really need fighters for awhile. By that time, I usually have great production power, so I just build a few flaks/mobile SAMs and lots of bombers, and quickly replace units that are lost.
I hardly ever build scouts or explorers either.

 

[Dell19]

I generally don't use artillery- I've never understood how anyone could use them in the first place without cutting the speed of an offensive in half

Bombardment units are extremely effective at saving troops. Artillery (at least on the patches I use) weaken units first before destroying improvements, which dramatically increases the chance of winning when units attack so you have less casualties and whilst some units heal the stack of artillary and defensive units can move forward whilst the fast units catch up again once healed.

 

[Damnyankee]

In one game i found a use for longbowman. I had no Iron and nobody would trade with me so i built a LB army andsent Spearman to defend them. It was a powerful force put together. In a way it was like having a unit that can dish out 4 attack and 2 defense

 

[Dreadnought]

@Damnyankee: like a MDI, right?

Well, I generally use artillery for defense, put them in a barricade near my capital and other cities (along with 2 defensive units) and put 2 in every other city (3 artillery in my capital)

Shouldn't Longbowmen have better defense? I mean, during ancient and medieval age that was what they were used for (defending castles, for example)

 

[Mewtarthio]

I've never used Paratroops or Helicopters. In fact, I don't think I've ever even bothered researching Adv. Flight. I suppose it could prove useful if my opponent is on another continent and has a strong navy, but I'm too busy building my Spaceship to be bothered with that.